October 27, 2012

• Report # 935

  I am spending my last couple of days here in Lázaro Cárdenas. I have purchased my bus ticket to Guadalajara and I will be leaving Michoacán at 10:45 pm on Monday evening. I'll arrive in Guadalajara at 5:30 am..... thirteen and a half hours before my flight to Monterrey. This will give me plenty of time to explore the city of Guadalajara and take so many pictures. I will do some research online and find out what there is to see in the city.

  I'm hoping I'll get a strong enough internet signal on the bus so I can connect to the internet and post my Xanga entry in the morning, otherwise I'll have to find an internet cafe or a signal for my laptop in Guadalajara. I don't really want to spend my day there doing that though, so I'm hopeful I can get it done on the bus. On Wednesday I went to La Fragua to have lunch, and I ordered a chicken burger and fries as well as a milk shake. Definitely not the healthiest lunch in the world, but I enjoyed it.

  The cook actually came out and spoke to me in English saying to me if the burger was too salty he would make me another one, but I enjoyed it. Wednesday was such a humid day as it got up to 35 C with the humidity. This day felt especially hot as the previous weeks didn't quite get that hot. After experiencing that day I really can't wait to get to Monterrey and enjoy some drier heat and cooler nights.

  Dora stopped by the house Thursday at lunch time and we spent some time in the bedroom enjoying the air conditioning before going to the plaza to have Chinese food. Unfortunately 2:30 pm is not a great time to go to that place as they almost never have anything left. It didn't help that there were two incredibly heavy people ordering practically the whole restaurant in front of us ! We just ended up leaving and on the way out we noticed a new Chinese restaurant but it was closed for the day. I definitely want to try it before leaving here.

  Dora dropped me off at a super cheap restaurant where I had a burger and fries and drink for 45 pesos. ($ 3.45) Afterwards I walked home and had a relaxing evening. At night Dora and I went to a nice restaurant where we had eaten a few weeks ago to have a light dinner. I just had a chicken soup and some cheese and that was good enough for me. Dora came over on Friday and we spent an hour together at her lunch time before she went back to work. In the afternoon I went to Cinépolis to see a movied called Chiapas El Corazón del Café.

  It was a great movie about a man and his wife from England who came to Mexico and purchased land to grow the perfect coffee beans. The movie was mostly in Spanish, though with lots of English, some Italian, and Indigenous languages as well. I headed home in the evening and Dora came over once again to spend some time with me and pick up a lot of the things that she had lent me while I was living here. She took the bus at night to go to Morelia to deal with some school things.

  Dora will return tomorrow and we can enjoy our last full day together before I leave. It will definitely be sad, but I do have hopes for the future and I told Dora that we will see each other again and of course we'll talk regularly. Today I went for a run in the morning and came home and had a shower and walked up to the coffee shop to find out that it was closed. I was disappointed as I really wanted some pancakes and eggs.

  I walked further to another coffee shop and just had a frappuichino and a chicken sandwhich. It felt so refreshing and amazing sitting in that air conditioned coffee shop. I had to walk home through the heat and humidity afterwards, but as soon as I got home I went to the room and used the a/c as I worked more through my Spanish book. I have one more unit and I'm done the book after over a year. I will now have completed 3/4 Spanish books that I've bought.

  While I have already studied most of the concepts that are in those books, they still teach me new things and it's mostly about giving me written practice. Eventually I want to learn French and German, though I have so many things I have to accomplish now, the other languages will have to wait for a while. Later today I will have to clean this house as the landlord will come tomorrow hopefully to return my deposit. I will have to see if I can return the key to him on Monday as that is the day I will actually be leaving from here.

  I've been following the election in the US and I still stand by my prediction from a long time ago that President Barack Obama will defeat Mitt Romney in a very close race. From what I've been reading it's very, very tight, though Obama seems to have the advantage in the "key battleground states." While Mitt Romney obviously did well in the debates, and clearly dominated the president in the first debate, re-energizing his campaign and giving it momentum, I think at least some voters will have been turned off by some of the stupid abortion comments by two republican senate hopefuls.

  I'm not going to go through the time and effort to post what these two men said, but anyone who has not heard about their incredibly stupid, horrific and downright appalling comments can find them on Google. The republicans may have kissed their hope of winning back control of the senate good-bye, and I can imagine at least a few voters will push aside any consideration for voting for Mitt Romney as well. While Mitt Romney is obviously an incredibly talented businessman, he himself is known for making some pretty dumb statements as well, and I really don't think he's the right type of person to be a president.

  He is always changing his opinions on issues and basically just tries to say what he thinks will help him capture the most votes. While all politicians are guilty of doing this somewhat, Mitt Romney is an expert. I found it funny that Obama has labeled his condition "Romnesia." Now obviously there are a lot of people still struggling in the US and the hope and change that was promised back in 2008 has not helped everyone. So obviously Obama has not done perfectly and he has made some mistakes, but given the choice between him and Mitt Romney, I think Obama is the much better choice.

  Women won't have to worry about him taking away their rights and sending them back to the 1950's, gays and lesbians can take comfort in knowing they have a president who will fight for their rights, and poor people won't have to worry about hearing about someone who says he doesn't care about them. So while there are a number of issues people can criticize Barack Obama on, I still believe more than 50 % of Americans will realize that between Obama and Romney, Barack Obama will be the better choice.

  If somehow Mitt Romney manages to eke out a slight victory almost everyone around the world will be shaking their heads wondering what on earth the voters of the US were thinking, but at the end of the day the vote belongs to the American people and they have every right to choose who they want, just like people in their own countries have the right to vote for whoever they want. Of course I'm always fascinated by politics, and as frustrating it is to deal with polticians, elections are always exciting and I love following elections around the world in different countries.

  I think we all should at least be somewhat interested in what happens around the world, and we should definitely all be interested in what is happening in our own countries. So I encourage all Americans to cast your vote as this is your chance to make your voice heard. Don't let those people who died fighting to save democracy over the years have their lives lost in vain. Vote and then you have  a right to complain after if you like. And the same goes to anyone else in the world, if you have an opportunity to vote, as Nike says, just do it !

  For the next question:

  What are your thoughts on the US presidential election, do you have any predictions ? Do you ever follow elections or politics in other countries ?

  Today I'll leave you all with some pictures from Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Tuesday, bye for now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • 2:49 pm
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